Book picks similar to
Desolation by A.J. Alexander


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Heartless Sinner


Erika Wilde - 2022
    . .Half past thirty and still single, my father rode my ass daily about getting married, starting a family, and looking the part. I needed to soften my enforcer image and have the outward appearance that I was on the straight and narrow.When I argued that I wasn't ready to settle down, he explained that no one ever was, and none of them ever did...with a wink. I laughed, until I thought about my mother. I might be a tough guy in a dangerous world, but I wanted a woman who could handle me at my worst and positively adore me at my best. Was that so much to ask of a wife?There'd only ever been one girl who came close to that: Marla. She was plenty tough herself. She had to be. She grew up in the world, as well. And when she came to me asking for help to avenge her brother’s death, I was more than happy to help . . . for a price.Marriage. To me. A mafia capo . . . the very thing she swore she’d never do.Heartless Sinner is the first book in the Made for the Mafia series. Each book in the series stands alone and ends in a guaranteed HEA.

Romancing the Mob Boss


Mallory Monroe - 2011
    Hoping to see him again, but not disappointed when she doesn’t, she goes on with her life. But a week later, when she interviews for a job at the renowned PaLargio Hotel and Casino on the Vegas Strip, and discovers that the owner of the hotel is the man she had slept with, a man who very much wishes to rekindle what they had captured that passionate night, her entire life spirals into a new and dramatic world where family ties and ever-increasing violence ropes them in.Reno Gabrini is a man’s man who knew, the first time he spent an evening with her, that Trina was the woman for him. But he soon discovers that capturing her heart was not going to be as easy as ordering his minions around, especially with his mob connections that keeps their romance in a constant state of uncertainty. But his love for Trina makes him bound and determined to do all he can to keep her, even if it means forsaking all others.In an interracial romance that tests the very essence of love, Reno and Trina discovers that there are no easy answers, and no perfect endings, but that their love and devotion to each other can help them find the way.

Live Again


Devin Sloane - 2021
    Actually, she lost it seven years ago, the moment she lost her husband Jack. After his death, her grief, combined with deteriorating mental and physical health, led her to shrink her world down to dimensions that can only be described as pocket-sized. Now, Rebecca is starting to wake up to the world around her, realizing she's been living little more than a half-life. She decides to kick off her new life with a mini bucket list to get her up off her couch, a list that leads her to Rhys. Rhys, the first man to light her fire since Jack, he thrills her and terrifies her in equal measure. Rhys is just as enthralled with Rebecca, and keen to be an integral part of the changes she's making. Unfortunately for Rhys, meeting a man is not on her bucket list. Fortunately for Rebecca, he's good at editing. The question that remains is whether Rebecca is willing to risk loving, and losing, again.

Billionaire's Date


Mia Ford - 2017
     Or fighting me, I should say!And this is not going to end nice. Because I am done playing the nice CEO at work. One night with her, And all I wanna play now, is a terrific bedroom game. A game that lasts forever, I bet that s*xy a$$ and those perky nip*les would be a treat to watch and play with. But what's gonna happen when she finds out about the big secret I am hiding? There is a lot at stake, and I have to make a choice. You bet it's a tough one! This is the FIRST Novella in the 69th St. Bad Boys Series! No cliffhangers and HEA guaranteed!

Shelter for Sharla


Deanndra Hall - 2019
    It’s a deadly place to be. The college student who shot and killed a Kentucky State Trooper on the side of the highway committed “suicide by cop”, and the bullet that ended her life came from Trigg County Sheriff Carter Melton’s gun. He wants some answers, and so does her beautiful, grief-stricken aunt, Sharla Barker. On top of being insistent that the Tamara Kent she knew would never kill an officer, Sharla’s also insistently pursuing Carter, and he’s definitely not playing hard to get. His battered, aching heart needs the forgiveness she offers him and the passion she ignites in him. The medical examiner’s weird findings, an odd tattoo, and an even stranger on-campus rally prior to the shooting begin to point in a direction that Carter could never have imagined. Before he knows it, he’s working with San Antonio FBI Agent Cruz Livingston to uncover a threat never before seen in far western Kentucky. It’s a criminal element with only one thing on their minds—money—and they’re determined to find it. It’ll take multiple agencies and some help from a very unlikely source to bring the case to a close before someone dies in “The Den of the Wolf.” Built on an actual crime that took place in western Kentucky in 2015, Bluegrass Bravery: Shelter for Sharla is an over-18, panty-melting tale of undying love, suspense, crime, and dedication as officers from Kentucky and Texas work together to save Carter, the woman he craves, and the two kids she loves, while bringing those truly responsible to justice.

Capture Me


Anna Zaires - 2015
     Yulia Tzakova is no stranger to dangerous men. She grew up with them. She survived them. But when she meets Lucas Kent, she knows the hard ex-soldier may be the most dangerous of them all. One night—that’s all it should be. A chance to make up for a failed assignment and get information on Kent’s arms dealer boss. When his plane goes down, it should be the end. Instead, it's just the beginning. He wants her from the first moment he sees her. Lucas Kent has always liked leggy blondes, and Yulia Tzakova is as beautiful as they come. The Russian interpreter might’ve tried to seduce his boss, but she ends up in Lucas’s bed—and he has every intention of seeing her there again. Then his plane goes down, and he learns the truth. She betrayed him. Now she will pay.

Machiavellian


Bella Di Corte - 2020
     I hungered to be seen. There were three things I knew about Capo Macchiavello: He was gorgeous. He was reclusive. He was considered one of New York’s most savage animals. And he wanted me as his wife. A simple arrangement – you do for me, I do for you. Nothing owed, no expectations. Except for one: never leave. Life was never that simple, though. By the age of twenty-one, I was parentless, jobless, and homeless, and I had come to learn the hard way that nothing was ever free. Even kindness comes with strings. Capo might’ve been the only man to ever see me, but I had made a vow to myself: I would never owe anyone anything. Most of all, the man I called boss. I killed to stay hidden. Mariposa Flores thought she owed nothing to no one, but she owed everything…to me, the ghost the world had once called The Machiavellian Prince of New York.

This Life I


Cara Dee - 2018
    We have our own protocol, our own traditions, dating back to when two families merged and created our syndicate in Ireland. Now, we have our strongholds in Philly and Chicago, and the wrong man holds the highest position. The day my uncle decided to betray us, he signed his own death warrant, and after a five-year hitch in the can, I’m ready to take everything from him. In order to ensure the demise of his management, I have to get close to him. I need to earn his trust and that of his closest associates. I’ll be the top earner he wants me to be. I’ll be the very image of a conventional family man. For that to happen, this Irish bastard has to find himself a wife. Someone sweet and compliant who will stand by my side and make me look like I have too much to lose to screw over the head of the family. Emilia Porter When it rains, it pours, so I guess it’s been pouring for eighteen years now. Being from an old mining town that’s full of drunk cautionary tales, I spend my days juggling—and failing—school, work, and paying the bills so my dad can drink himself into a stupor. Then this freaking guy rolls into town in his expensive sports car and thinks I should marry him. This isn’t the fifties, and there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell I’ll marry a well-known mobster. No matter how much money he promises me. No matter how intensely the chemistry sizzles between us. He asks for three years of marriage. Then I’d be set for life, independent and free to start fresh on my own. Free to walk away. Who the hell does he think he is?

Cloak and Dagger


Nenia Campbell - 2012
    When a hacker breaks into their computer's mainframe, they send Michael out to finish off the loose ends. But so far, there's just one lead to go on. The hacker's daughter, Christina Parker.Christina seems like any other high school senior. And she is — until she gets kidnapped by a group of people who think she's the key to the malicious code that has infected their mainframe system and she is plunged into a world where the lines between right and wrong are blurred beyond all recognition and terror knows no bounds. What do you do when the odds are against you, and the stake is your life?As she quickly learns, there are good guys and there are bad guys. Sometimes Michael's one, sometimes he's the other--but usually he's both. And right now he's the only one who can save her.Cover design by Louisa.

Pike


T.M. Frazier - 2020
    Baptized in the gutter. I was raised by the violent laws of the streets, spilling blood without the hindrance of useless emotions or connections.Unfeeling. Unloved. Alone.My life was perfect.Until her.While on a manhunt for a mysterious enemy, one hellbent on taking both my business and my life, I find Mickey. She's covered in mud, rambling nonsense, and clearly out of her mind. She's also a distraction I don't need.That is until I discover a connection between the girl and my enemy.Mickey isn't a distraction anymore.She's the perfect weapon.One I'll use to exact my revenge.The plan is an easy one, but there's something about Mickey that's making it more and more difficult. A familiarity I can't place. A need I can't explain.A want I have to deny.After all, she's not mine to keep. She's a tool. My pawn. My sacrifice.

Her Mafia Valentine


Flora Ferrari - 2020
    Her dad, Hudson does his taxes, but she’s calculating more than that happening between them both. The problem? Dad’s also a hitman for the mob and doesn’t like the idea of his only daughter mixing business with pleasure. Can Mickey really have her? Or is Hudson on an all- out mission to bring down not only Mickey Valentine, but the entire Family itself? *Her Mafia Valentine is a SHORT insta-everything standalone instalove romance with an HEA, no cheating, and no cliffhanger.

Beautifully Brutal


Nicole Edwards - 2015
    Sometimes the only way to describe it is beautifully brutal. If you think you know him… You’re wrong. If you think you know his family… Wrong again. If you think you know his story… You don’t. If you did, you’d likely wonder how the hell a man like Maximillian Adorite managed to make it to this point in his life. At twenty-nine, he’s experienced more than most people could only ever imagine, all thanks to his family. Organized crime they call it. Mafia. No matter how they spin it, it comes down to one thing. Max gets what he wants. Except for the one thing he wants most. Her name is Courtney Kogan. And now that he’s had a taste of her, Max knows he’ll never be able to let her go. The Southern Boy Mafia series is a spinoff from the Sniper 1 Security series. It has been set up to be read without reading Sniper 1 Security, however, the characters will frequently cross over.

East (Billionaire Ranch Book 3)


Vanessa Vale - 2022
    I’m all in… her.Except she sneaks off after and I’m left with only her first name and panties.Turns out, finding her is the easy part. Making her mine?Impossible, once I discover she’s my student.

Until Tomorrow Comes


Adelaide Forrest - 2021
    I left with an obsession.With one look, Isa captivated me. She consumed me, drawing me into her world without ever knowing the dangers of mine. I intend to make her mine, no matter what lies I need to tell to manipulate her into falling in love with El Diablo. It should be simple enough, but secrets lurk in the depths of her multicolored eyes, and I’ll do anything to understand what broke her before I had the chance.Because she’s mine to break.IsaRafael Ibarra tore through my life like a raging inferno.Consuming every part of me he touches, he promises to show me passion and the real Ibiza. Though our tryst can never be anything but temporary, I never want to leave the man who makes me wish things were different. But there’s a nightmare hiding within his multicolored gaze, a phantom rattling at the cages who wants to devour me, to take me and claim me as his. He’s temptation, pushing me toward sin with his wicked touch. But the sins of the flesh are different from the sins of the mind, and as much as I hate his secrets.I will never tell him my own.Until Tomorrow Comes is the first book in the Beauty in Lies trilogy and ends on a cliffhanger. This is a DARK mafia romance and contains graphic violence, mature content, and elements that may be triggering. Please read at your own discretion.

His Virgin Queen


Mink - 2020
    Even so, I still held onto the hope of living free of the families. But when I’m given to Antonio Tuscani, I realize my thin dreams of escaping this life were just that -- dreams. Giving up -- I accept my fate … Until a fierce-eyed boss, Nick DaVinci, shows up on my wedding day to exact lethal vengeance. NickI came for Tuscani blood, and I took it.The doe-eyed bride in her white dress and veil of innocence doesn’t bat an eyelash when I do what I was born to do. I’m the head of the most powerful mafia family in the city, and I didn’t get here by sparing enemies. But Sophia’s demeanor intrigues me, and soon I realize she is far more than a mafia princess -- she is a queen -- and I will stop at nothing to keep her by my side. *-*Mink's Note: Curl up with your fav feline for this safe, sweet, steamy, a 'lil dark, and a lot dreamy, HEA.